Family History 1.119

Gaze History: NSG Memoir

Early Holidays

One of the most memorable shared experiences of this early period of the marriage was a holiday Noel and Mary took around lower Northland by bicycle.  The roads in those days were almost universally unsealed.  They took the train to Helensville and then cycled through the Kaipara, Albertland and Wellsford areas as far as Maungatoroto, where they caught another train home.  Sleeping in a small tent and carrying their clothes and food, they explored byways in that part of the world. 

Other holidays were enjoyed in company with Fred, Julia and Doris at Milford, or, as in 1935, on a trip around the East Coast in Fred’s car.

 

 

Business and a Baby

 

By then Noel and Mary had been joined by their first child, Christopher.  His second name was given in memory of Frank Crocombe: Franklin, or little Frank.  After a year of enduring comments from acquaintances connected with the use of the name Christopher as an expletive, they decided to use Franklin as the preferred name.  The name Christopher was carefully chosen because of its meaning: Christ-bearer, and in the light of the poem of that name written by Studdart Kennedy, one of Noel’s heroes. The parents did not want to impose the burden of their grief over Frank on the baby, so did not call him directly after the lost cousin. And they always insisted on Franklin being used in full. 

The baby was born in November 1933 at the Edenholme Nursing Home in Mt Eden Road, as were his younger siblings later.  Noel was relieved that there was no sign of the congenital defect he had endured. There is some uncertainty as to the extent of the genetic contribution to this condition anyway; expert opinion gives around 50% as the genetic component in the statistical occurrence of it.[1]

---

[1] Fifteen years after Noel’s death, his youngest grandchild, Julia Margaret, was born with cleft lip and palate, but by then the advances in surgery and other interventions had made a more complete repair possible.

 

Mary and the baby were visited weekly by the Plunket nurse, who weighed the baby and gave the usual advice.  At seven weeks he had thrush, and at three months Mary was advised to rub his abdomen gently to assist ”sluggish”  bowel motions.  Two weeks later a concoction of prune juice was prescribed, as the abdominal massage had clearly not produced the desired result. Within a month everyone heaved a sigh of relief as things were declared normal, but the prune juice, and orange juice, were continued just in case.